Vancouverite Thierry Tanguy’s Moto Art brings something new to the motorcycle enthusiast, shots of beautiful precision that take the mechanical design elements of both present day and historic motorcycles and elevates them into the realm of  art.  To our eye anyway.  That being said we’ll let Thierry and his art speak for themselves.

MotoArt – Thierry Tanguy

The decision to start this photography project came after a search for some cool motorcycle pictures to hang on my office wall. What is currently on the market caters almost exclusively to the cruiser and Harley crowd. If you’re a sportsbike aficionado, you’re out of luck, except for some drawn art or ads for British bikes from the 60’s.

As a Location Manager for the Film Industry, I take pictures constantly, so it was a relatively easy step to get going on this new project, at least technically speaking.  The idea is to convey the ‘emotion’ of the bike, not to depict an exact rendition of what it actually looks like.

Most pictures are ‘tweaked’ in different ways to catch what one could call the ‘soul’ of the bike. It starts with composition; which tends to be unorthodox in that I never try to fit the entire bike in the frame; but only what I see as being its ‘essence’. Then starts the numeric work, more or less intense. In some instances pushing the colours and contrast will do, in others, a negative print, sepia colouring, altered tonality and added patterns will bring the photo to life. The process can be lengthy as I try several combinations for each picture. Some work as a series of 2 or 3, a good way to enliven a boring wall!

The response from the motorcycling community has been extremely good, and what started as an experiment is now growing into a new niche market for ‘moto art’ (although I’m not sure I’d qualify this work as ‘art’ myself…).

The current collection numbers about 50 shots, and is growing rapidly  Each photo is printed in 13 X 19 in a limited edition of 25, and is framed in black aluminum.

For more information on MotoArt, or additional samples please contact Thierry Tanguy atttanguy@telus.net.  Singles are priced at $ 150.00, doubles $125.00 each, triples $100.00 each.